Pro Life

It has taken me a long time to come to terms with the truth that I am pro Choice and I am unashamedly so. I was always afraid to say it because of the nature of NI's deeply conservative society and how it would reflect on my character.

By investing to make contraception available to every woman who wants it, improving access to safe abortion where it's legal and making sure that medical care is readily available when things go wrong we can make a real difference. It's not rocket science - even for someone still relatively new to the development sector like me.

The case of the Australian couple who have taken the twin, but not the Downs syndrome sibling from the surrogate Thai mother, which has been in the news this week raises some interesting ethical issues. I don't mean to comment directly on that case here because the facts of that particular case are far from clear. The only thing that is clear is that it is very sad that it has happened. But what were the alternatives?

In much of the western world we have the luxury of choice, whether you agree with the actions that follow that choice or not, it is the option that is important. The lack of choice, the continued subjugation of the rights of women and the subsequent death or injury that still affects so many, is a big problem and we should not ignore it.

In order to truly understand the magnitude of what we are considering, we must return to the child at the centre of it all. A child who did not ask to be conceived in such a way, nor ask to be unwanted in any way, but could have grown up to be a child with a voice asking for love, respect and dignity. For now, we must be their voice.

In my opinion, there is a serious lack of education coupled with a deliberate propagation of misinformation in the political and public sphere when it comes to women's reproductive rights in Northern Ireland.

The complete ban on abortion sends out the message that women are simply vehicles to bring life into the world and, if they lose their own life in the process, well, at least they have fulfilled their ultimate purpose.

Medical reasons would provide the only good justification for reducing the limits of abortion; if this is the case, I'm all for a change in the law. But until this is proven, an arbitrary change could result in fewer rights, severe harm or even death - and this is simply not worth it.

I wrote this column, not because I wanted to have a row about abortion or "climbing on a bandwagon", but because I desperately wanted "my fellow lefties and liberals to try to understand and respect the views of those of us who are pro-life, rather than demonise us as right-wing reactionaries or medieval misogynists". Yesterday's Twitter responses show that I failed to persuade them to do so.

I certainly find the clinic-praying distasteful and ill-judged (especially from those who claim to want to help women facing unwanted pregnancies) but it's the lies and scare tactics of these 'counselling' sessions which I find truly 'un-Christian'.